1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling network access for applications on mobile devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling network access of applications on mobile devices according at least one of predetermined conditions and a user input.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile terminals, such as laptops, mobile phones, smart phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, electronic-books (e-books), wireless music players, Personal Media Players (PMPs), portable gaming devices, and other similar and/or suitable portable electronic devices may provide communication services between the mobile devices and a wireless communication network. As technology has advanced, mobile terminals now provide many additional features beyond simple voice communication, and may include a wide variety of applications that provide many different types of data communications and network services. For example, mobile terminals may include applications that provide a user a variety of services and/or features, such as access to social networks and/or Social Network Services (SNSs), electronic-mail (e-mail), messaging services, streaming media content including audio and video content, video communication services including teleconferencing and direct communication, remote data storage and access, network cloud services, and a variety of other data services involving push and/or pull services for any applications that may be included on a mobile devices.
With the plurality of applications that provide a wide variety of services and features on mobile terminals, a mobile terminal may include a wide variety of user information that may be stored thereupon or communicated via the wireless communication, wherein the user information may include private, personal, and confidential data and/or information, or any other information that a user may want to be protected from access via the wireless communication network. Furthermore, the plurality of applications that may be included in a mobile device may access the wireless communication network and/or transmit and receive information automatically without a user's knowledge and/or explicit execution of the application, at predetermined times and/or locations, or in any other similar and/or suitable manner. However, a firewall may be used to configure a variety of parameters, conditions, rules, restrictions, and/or elements in order to control network access of applications included on mobile terminals.
More specifically, the firewall may be installed on a variety of network elements, such as a terminal, a router, and any other similar network element. The Firewall may analyze and control incoming and/or outgoing network traffic so as to determine whether the incoming and/or outgoing network traffic is permitted ingress and/or egress to the network element which the firewall is installed on. For example, a Windows firewall on a Personal Computer (PC) may automatically configure the firewall settings according to a type of network, such as a home, public, and/or work network and according to a domain. A user may classify a network into one of these predefined types and set the firewall accordingly. However, the Windows firewall does not allow for configuration of parameters with respect to individual applications and the Windows firewall does not consider network location.
Furthermore, although certain types of firewalls may allow for configuration of parameters with respect to individual applications, such firewalls may not provide ingress and egress control, or access control, with respect to a type of network encryption and/or location of a network or the apparatus on which the firewall is disposed. Additionally, firewalls that are implemented on mobile terminals, such as a cell phone or any other similar portable electronic device, may provide may provide access control according to whether the portable electronic device is connected to a WiFi network or a cellular network. However, such firewalls for portable electronic devices may not provide access control with respect to a type of network encryption and/or location of a network. Additionally, although some firewalls for portable electronic devices may provide access control according to location with respect to an Internet Protocol (IP) address, such a system may be highly inaccurate because a public IP address may be assigned by a network operator's gateway, which may be located at a different physical location than a location, such as a cell in a cellular network, of the portable electronic device. Accordingly, location information used by such a firewall may be incorrect.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for controlling network access for applications on mobile devices according to a variety of user determined parameters, conditions, rules, restrictions, and/or elements.